
Words of Life...
WORDS OF LIFE
Tuesday 9 December
ACTS 1:8 and ACTS 10
The legacy of the Acts Church - a universal vision
'...you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth' (Acts 1:8)
IN Acts 10, we have the record of how God confronted the apostle Peter about an aspect of the vision of the Acts Church that was clearly wrong and how God wanted to put it right as quickly as possible. Jesus had given them their vision statement: '. ..you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth' (Acts 1:8).
But the ears of the disciples, culturally attuned to how God had always revealed himself as 'the God of Israel', interpreted this as 'you will be my witnesses to Jews in Jerusalem, and Jews in all Judea and Samaria, and Jews to the ends of the earth'. Now, as Peter goes up to pray on the roof of his friend Simon the tanner in the seaside town of Joppa, God challenges these assumptions to the core.
In a dream, Peter sees a large sheet being let down from Heaven with all kinds of animals on it. Then a voice says to him, 'Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.' And Peter replies, 'Surely not, Lord! I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.' But the voice persists and eventually the sheet is taken back to Heaven (Acts 10:9-16).
The animals on the sheet represented the food of the Gentiles and, later in the chapter, Peter confesses that he 'should not call anyone impure or unclean' (v 28). By then, he is beginning to embrace the revelation that the good news of Jesus was meant for 'all' people and 'all' ethnicities, not only people who were Jewish.
Our understanding today of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the availability of the Holy Spirit being for people from all backgrounds is a powerful legacy of the Acts Church. It is a legacy we should not take for granted but deeply value, and live into it every day of our lives. The vision God gives us to be witnesses to 'all' people is a foundational principle of the Kingdom of God.
FOR REFLECTION
How does your vision for mission, and the vision of your faith community, stack up against the vision of God for your mission? Is it far-reaching and embracing of all, or confined to the comfort zones that may have taken root over time? We need to pray for the Holy Spirit's help to break through our assumptions and let the Spirit lead us and our mission of being 'witnesses to the ends of the earth'.
IHQ
#SeasonOfPrayerAndCommitment - Salvationist online






